In a market flooded with releases, The Tears, are in significant danger of falling into the Just Another Album category. The long anticipated reunion of the estranged Bernard Butler and the fallen Brett Anderson turns out to be a bit of a damp squib.

Nobody would give a toss if it wasn’t for the fact that this pair wrote “Suede” and “Dog Man Star” and heralded the rise of Suede in their glory years. Whilst The Tears definitely want to be seen as a new band, without this history they would sink without trace. And probably undeservedly.

Reuniting with an estranged partner after a ten year absence doesn’t always yield results. Like getting back with an excellent but tempestous sex, it’s a relationship that smacks of desperation. If it wasn’t so bloody good.

Mostly, “Here Comes The Tears” sound like a Bernard Butler solo record with an ace singer. There’s nothing new, no new ideas of any innovation, but a stream of clasic songs. Whilst there’s a couple of duffers (“Autograph” and “Asylum” leap out as no marks in these high waters), most songs match the windswept vistas of hopeful lovers with Spectoresque strings and Anderson’s sometimes wonderful lyrics to create something that sounds, on paper, a bit ropey, but in the flesh, knocks the pretenders to the throne back to the dark ages where they belong.

“Refugees”, a Bernard solo number with a new singer, is possibly the best single song Brett has sung in almost a decade. “The Lovers” is a similarly epic bedsit drama with meaningless/meaningful couplets of such ambiguity that it could be about throwing food, or the best love song of all time. However with lines such as “your language is appalling/you play with my hair in the morning” Brett really needs to spend more time with a  thesaurus. It’s obvious that the youthful follies of their previous work has long been spent and matured into something altogether more potent, but less thrilling.

There’s nothing wrong with these songs, and many of them are worthy of standing up to the best of their early work, but the excitement and exurberance of “Animal Nitrate” or “New Generation” is long gone, tempered by age and guile, into a new template, a new way of living that appeals more to the mind and the soul than the heart and the feet. “Here Comes The Tears” is ample evidence that they may yet become the equal of their previous band, but only time and talent can tell. A promising start to a brand new century

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2!